Mattress cover



Fell 1952 J. SMALL ETAL MATTRESS COVER Filed Aug. 30, 1950 INVENTORSI JACK SMALL LEO BRODY Patented Feb. 12, 1952 UNE'YED STATES PATENT QFFICE 2,585,861 MATTRESS covert Jack Small and Leo Brody, Bronx, N. Y. Application August 30, 1950, Serial No. 182,184

'7 Claims.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in mattress covers; and, more particularly, the aim is to provide a novel and valu able mattress-topping protective structure comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members, as sheets of a suitable plastic material, and means whereby each of said members may be secured along one of its edges to the mattress along its length and near one of its sides, to the end that then, consequent upon the shapes and dimensions of said sheets, they may serve as flaps each for covering a part of the width of the mattress top and with one overlapping the other longitudinally of the mattress and along a central zone thereof.

The purpose of the new structure is to protect the mattress from becoming soiled, fouled or otherwise damaged by the deposit thereon of foreign matter such as food droppings and urine and other body discharges; and while the new protective structure is of value domestically, its main utility, as will be understood, it in connection with mattresses for hospital beds and for baby cribs and nursery beds. A very special advantage or" the new protective structure, this having to do with the ease of changing the same relative to the mattress of a bed to be nevertheless meanwhile occupied by a sick person, will be made clear hereinafter.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of the objects and advantages thereof, reference will be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, and to the appended claims in which the various novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

Fig. i is a perspective View, showing a protective structure pursuant to the invention attached to and smoothly spread over the top of a mattress; the overlying one of said flaps being partially broken away.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but with both flaps removed and hence showing merely the mattress and the elements of said securing means permanently carried by the mattress.

Fig. 3 is also a view similar to Fig. 1, but with Lil) now one of said flaps attached and with the topping structure is illustrated as comprising two flexible sheet members l2 and I4. Said members are flexible and waterproof, and may be, for instance, sheets of a suitable plastic material.

As will be noted, said sheets I? and I4 serve as flaps each for covering a part of the width of the mattress top, and with one sheet overlapping the other longitudinally of the mattress and along the central zone thereof; both sheets being substantially as long as the mattress.

in the drawings, the two sheets or flaps l2 and M are illustrated as not only of the same length but also of the same width, so that each is of the same expanse as the other when stretched fiat; also, as said sheets or flaps are shown, the width thereof is about two-thirds the width of the mattress. Thus, when said flaps or sheets i2 and it are arranged as in Fig. 1, either with the flap or sheet l2 uppermost and the flap or sheet i i lowermost, as there indicated, or vice versa, the mattress will be topped by a waterproof protective structure which is of two ply thickness over a central longitudinal zone of the mattress having a width equal to about one-third that of the mattress.

Each sheet orfiap l2 and it, along its side to lie adjacent to a side of the mattress, is suitably detachably secured in place, as by safety pins, buttons and buttonholes, snap fasteners or in any other desired way. In the drawing, such securement is illustrated as effected, in the case of each of said flaps or sheets, by means of a socalled zipper or slide fastener of the kind wherein the two interlocking parts of the slide fastener each of which incorporates a line of tape carried teeth are wholly separable.

Said slide fastener for the sheet or flap I2 is as a whole designated l5, and said slide fastener for the sheet or flap I4 is as a whole designated I6. Referring to the slide fastener 15, one of the two wholly separable teeth carrying tapes thereof, this tape marked ll, is permanently secured as by stitching to the mattress, while the other of said tapes, this marked I8, is permanently se cured as by stitching to the sheet or flap [2. Referring to the slide fastener l6, one of the two wholly separable teeth carrying tapes thereof, this tape marked it, is permanently secured as by stitching to the mattress, while the other of said tapes, this marked 20, is permanently secured as by stitching to the sheet or flap I4.

Following establishment of the new protective structure in place on the mattress 10 as in Fig. 1, the bed clothes may be applied in the usual way.

The laying down of these will hold the flaps I2 and [4 down flat, and block access of any part of the body of the beds occupant to the upper one tress. 14 be of the same expanse, and if the slide fasteners I and IB be exactly alike, then any reof the said flaps and so prevent accidental disarray of the protective structure.

The already alluded to advantage of the new protective structure, this having to do with the ease of changing the same relative to the mattress of a bed to be nevertheless meanwhile occupied by a sick person, will now be explained. Such person may be an adult, as one in a hospital; or an infant, as one in the nursery, and either ill or otherwise particularly at the time needing sleep or as much undisturbed rest as possible. Those trained in the nursing profession are familiar with the technique of changing the bottom sheet of the bed clothes without having to cause the patient to vacate the bed; this being done by transferring the patient to a place very close to one side of the bed, then rolling up half of the width of said bottom sheet on itself at the opposite side of the bed and there laying down the replacement sheet in half rolled up condition, then shifting the patient over to a place very close to the other side of the bed and so beyond the rolled up portions of the old and of the replacement sheets, and then, after stripping off the old sheet, stretching out the new sheet fiat at the side of the bed last left by the patient.

This technique, however, is not applicable to a protective cover for a mattress, with such cover of any of the kinds or made in any of the ways heretofore proposed. But, as will be noted,

changing of the new protective structure is as easy as, indeed, is performed with greater facility than is possible in connection with, such a piece of bed clothes as the lower sheet; which latter is of a width very much greater than that of the mattress. When with the bed still occupied the protective structure for the mattress is to be changed, there is no need to lift the occupant of the bed at any time during such changing.

The procedure is as follows:

The bed clothes having been removed, as pursuant to the technique already mentioned, but with the new bottom sheet not yet having been substituted for the old one removed, the occupant of the bed is rolled over to lie on the flap I2 where projected beyond the flap I4; then the flap I 4, following full opening of the slide fastener I6, is removed, and a replacement flap exactly like the flap I4 is substituted for the last-named flap, and spread flat over the mattress; then the occupant of the bed is rolled over to lie on said replacement flap beyond the limits of the flap I2; then the flap I2, following full opening of the slide fastener I5, is removed, and a replacement flap exactly like the flap I2 is substituted for the last-named flap, and spread flat over the mattress and partially over the flap substituted for the flap I4.

These replacement flaps, it may be explained, may have before been repeatedly used, with washings and cleansings between uses; and, as it should be further noted, any replacement flap for the fiap I2 has permanently attached thereto a tape corresponding to the tape I 8 because carrying a line of slide fastener teeth complemental to the line of slide fastener teeth carried by the tape I! attached to the mattress I0, and any replacement flap for the flap I4 has permanently attached thereto a tape corresponding to the tape 23 because carrying a line of slide fastener teeth complemental to the line of slide fastener teeth carried by the tape I9 attached to the mat- If, as already mentioned, the flaps I2 and i placement flap may be substituted for either the flap I2 or the flap I4.

While we have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of our invention, it is to be understood that we do not limit ourselves to the precise construction herein disclosed and the right is reserved to all changes and modifications coming within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the width of the mattress but greater than half the width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of its sides to a different one of the two sides of the mattress.

2. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the width of the mattress but greater than half the width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of its sides to a different one of the two sides of the mattress, the width of each of said members being about two-thirds the width of the mattress.

3. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the width of the mattress but greater than half the width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of its sides to a different one of the two sides of the mattress, said means being partially carried by the mattress and partially carried by said structure.

4. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the width of the mattress but greater than half the width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of its sides to a different one of the two sides of the mattress, the means for detachably connecting one of said members to the mattress being partially carried by that member and partially carried by the mattress and the means for detachably connecting the other of said members to the mattress being partially carried by that member and partially carried by the mattress.

5. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the width of the mattress but greater than half the width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of itssides to a different one of the two sides of the mattress, said means including a slide fastener partially carried by one of said members and partially carried by the mattress and a second slide fastener partially carried by the other of said members and partially carried by the mattress.

6. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the width of the mattress but greater than half the width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of its sides to a different one of the two sides of the mattress, said means including a slide fastener partially carried by one of said members and partially carried by the mattress and a second slide fastener partially carried by the other of said members and partially carried by the mattress, said slide fasteners both being of the wholly separable kind.

7. A protective cover for a mattress, comprising a pair of flexible sheet-like waterproof members each of a length substantially equal to that of the mattress and of a width less than the Width of the mattress but greater than half the Width of the mattress, and means for detachably connecting each of said members along one of its sides to a difierent one of the two sides of the mattress, said means including a slide fastener partially carried by one of said members and partially carried by the mattress and a second slide fastener partially carried by the other of said members and partially carried by the mattress, said slide fasteners both being of the wholly separable kind, said slide fasteners being otherwise alike, whereby in replacing either of said members a replacement member for the other member may be used.

JACK SMALL.

LEO BRODY.

Name Date Robinson Jan. 8, 1935 Number 

